February 14th was a Sunday, Valentine's Day. Temperatures statewide dropped. Some snow fell across most of Texas.
Incredible 221 miles west to east of pure, mainly moderate to heavy snow.
As a result, Texans cranked their heat. Demand for power on the state's main power grid reached a record winter high.
Millions of Texans ended up being without power for days, nearly 15 million people had water issues, and the state's economy was essentially shut down for a whole week.
700 people died according to a Buzzfeed News analysis.
Some energy experts have called it the largest electricity disaster in modern American history. It was devastating.
Natural gas failed substantially during the winter storm.
Oil and gas regulators in Texas and prominent trade groups immediately launched a PR campaign after the winter storm.
They also used the storm as an opportunity to attack renewable energy sources.
Our wind and our solar, it got shut down and they were collectively more than 10% of our power grid.
And that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis.
Texas is a gas state. The oil and gas industry is very prominent and funds a lot of Texas political campaigns.
Lawmakers immediately proposed initiatives like weatherization standards, reforming the governance structure of the grid operator and the public utility commission.
A lack of weatherization in the winter was a big reason February happened.
So that was seen as kind of the bare minimum of what the Legislature should do is require standards for power companies, gas companies, to weatherize their infrastructure for extreme weather.
But the Legislature did not reprimand the gas industry like they did the electric industry.
They passed a series of bills on the power grid at the end of the session, but the process is lengthy.
The gas industry has been trying to deflect blame since the storm.
Lawmakers gave the gas industry a bit of an out.
If gas companies tell regulators that they are not prepared for extreme weather, they do not have to be designated as emergency critical infrastructure.
And by doing that, they can pay a $150 fee for not being critical. And as a result, they will not be required to weatherize their equipment.
Vistra is the largest power generation company in Texas.
The company has 19 power plants throughout the state, which accounts for about 18% of the power generated in the ERCOT market, enough to power 9 million Texas homes.
Vistra said that they had already started weatherizing in the spring.
They said they spent $50 million on weatherizing their equipment this year, and they plan to spend another $30 million.
That funding is necessary to ensure that their equipment stays online in the event of a winter storm.
They improve things like insulating some of their equipment, so it doesn't freeze.
Vistra CEO Curt Morgan said he is very concerned about natural gas getting to his power plants this winter because gas companies are not weatherizing.
His company buys gas from other companies. He needs it to arrive.
Morgan said that natural gas is fundamental to electricity.
He said that it was outrageous that the gas industry is not stepping up to weatherize.
And he said what happened during the winter storm could happen again.
After the winter storm, lawmakers were presented with a huge opportunity to address the state's electricity system.
They took a light-handed approach towards the gas industry, even though gas failed more than any other energy source during the winter storm.
Heading into this winter nine months after last year's storm, the grid is still vulnerable to disaster.